Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
Mobile Financial Solutions Providers Advocate Open Mobile Money Transfer Ecosystem
Money Transfer Industry Urged to Inter-connect at IAMTN Conference: Luup and Dhasatra Advocate an Open Mobile Money Transfer Ecosystem.
Luup, a mobile financial solutions provider with offices in UAE, Norway and the UK, outlined key success factors for building a seamless remittances ecosystem that includes challenging geographies such as Indonesia. The information was presented at the MTD conference held in Dubai by the IAMTN, the international trade association for the money transfer industry.
According to Saqib Iqbal, Regional Director Asia Pacific for Luup, “Users want cost-effective interconnected money transfer services that they can access from any provider, anytime, anywhere.” He added: “Mobile technology enables such efficient services, yet they depend on co-operation and the building of payments gateways, seamless remittance interconnections and cash-out facilities.”
Indonesia is a particularly challenging geography due to a largely unbanked population spread over hundreds of islands. The proliferation of mobile phones though makes it highly conducive to mobile enabling services. Seizing this opportunity to bring cost effective, real time remittance solutions to its customers, Dhasatra Indonesian Remittance, has joined Luup’s expanding, open mobile money transfer ecosystem.
Luup will mobile enable the inbound remittance corridor to Indonesia for Dhasatra and the subsequent distribution into Dhasatra’s extensive network in the country. Both banked and unbanked will be able to remit into bank accounts of 120 banks or cash out from bank and post office branches as well as telecom franchisees.
In 2010 alone inbound remittances to Indonesia amounted to around US$ 11Bn. The fast growing numbers of Indonesian migrants in the Middle East in particular are set to benefit from this increased convenience. The UAE, for example, ranks fourth globally with its sending volume to Indonesia and Luup already has an established payments gateway serving users in the Middle East. Luup’s regional presence provides Dhasatra with access to more sending institutions and other key partners in the Luup ecosystem.
Nicolas R. Dharmawan, President Director of Dhasatra, joined Luup at the MDT conference in advocating seamless mobile money transfers and gave examples of business benefits his company is gaining: “Partnering with Luup brings more remittances volume and traffic to Dhasatra and ultimately increases revenue. We are also excited about opportunities we will be able to pursue in Indonesia for m-commerce and domestic mobile money transfers as the partnership evolves further.”
The Money Transfer Dubai conference was held on the 29th March in Dubai and Luup demonstrated its solutions on its stand as well as speaking on the conference stream ‘Business opportunities and Challenges’.
More information: IAMTN
Source: PR Newswire